quackquack

When people need to kick back, have fun, and party, I will be there, unlike your pathetic fonts. While Gotham is at the science fair, I’m banging the prom queen behind the woodshop. While Avenir is practicing the clarinet, I’m shredding “Reign In Blood” on my double-necked Stratocaster. While Univers is refilling his allergy prescriptions, I’m racing my tricked-out, nitrous-laden Honda Civic against Tokyo gangsters who’ll kill me if I don’t cross the finish line first. I am a sans serif Superman and my only kryptonite is pretentious buzzkills like you.

Via @grantbw.

Once when I was teenager, I recall thinking about religion, and realizing I was definitely agnostic if not atheist. After all, I was good at science, and especially interested in physics and…

The group discussions were always eye-opening, especially to someone like me prone to hastily judging Christian beliefs; while there have been small disagreements between participants (I once got into a heated back-and-forth about science and the existence of logic), the atmosphere was nothing but respectful. We shared anecdotes about our spirituality or lack thereof, talked about restorative justice, considered alternatives to violence and explored the idea of Jesus as (depending on who you talked to) a historical figure or the son of God.

A pair of otherwise distinguished physicists have suggested that the hypothesized Higgs boson, which physicists hope to produce with the collider, might be so abhorrent to nature that its creation would ripple backward through time and stop the collider before it could make one, like a time traveler who goes back in time to kill his grandfather.

From davidinindy:

Answer: Because our human ancestors thought they were tasty! Even though it technically wasn’t cannibalism (it would have to be the same species) it’s still rather gross and of course the genocide of a sentient species for food and trophies by our early Homo-Sapien ancestors. Sometimes, history is just weird.

From Zakazukhazoo via Dirkthecow:

“Social media is just another bunch of communication channels which work the same way as talkback radio and letters to the editor do. The only difference is that everyone gets to be Rupert Murdoch and the old people aren’t invited. It’s not rocket science, it’s just the way people communicate now. If you’re interested in it and you’re adept at expressing other people’s opinions in 140 characters or less, you’re looking through a small window of opportunity here to pimp yourself out as a social media consultant. You’ve got about 8 months left to hold seminars and help newbies guide the way, but by 2010 all the road maps will have been re-written and marketing managers, PR firms and advertising agencies will be bypassing your little bridge in the woods as they travel down the newsest section of the information superhighway, on which Twitter will have been relegated to the slow lane and Facebook will be a distant speck in the rearview mirror.”

Martin’s comment: Cynical and depressing, but true of how the PR people have been gumming up Twitter lately. It needs to be about communication and real engagement.

Book: You Will Go to the Moon: Theo just picked this up. From 1959. The moon buggies look like some kind of Prius hotrods!

A great bunch of folks, they have kid-friendly public astronomy meet-ups.

Photo: 5yo Theo looks for first stars in dusk sky, April 09 event at Batsto NJ

Pissed that Philly’s Academy of Natural Sciences isn’t admitting to laying off part-staff. At least be honest. http://bit.ly/Ge0

QuakerQuaker and the coming collapse

This is probably more a practice video than a legitimately interesting one, but hope you like anyway. I talk about U2’s latest album, some cool new features on QuakerQuaker and a provocative commentary by Michael Spencer in Christian Science Monitor that I hope Friends will read.

U2’s “No Line on the Horizon”: bit.ly/M8Ktf

QuakerQuaker: bit.ly/quaker
Quakerquakers on Twitter: bit.ly/7MYrk
Join the QuakerQuakers group: bit.ly/quakerquakers

“The Coming Evangelical Collapse” (CSM): bit.ly/15yrA
“The Emergent Church Movement” (2003): bit.ly/A3cc5

• ETA/Cuisenaire Homeschool: Home
  Math reading and science teaching
  (tags: products.kids)

A recent article on the art and science of taste and smell in the New Yorker had a paragraph that stood out for me. The author John Lanchester had just shared a moment where he suddenly understood…

• Interview w/Chris Lehmann, principal of Philadelphia’s “School 2.0” experiment
  “School 2.0” goes beyond technology. Likewise, a school that truly is designed for the future may also go beyond the literal building itself. Sometimes it shows up in small choices that allow kids and teachers to connect, collaborate, and create.
  (tags: tech tech.internetculture)
• Practical Theory
  Chris Lehman’s blog. He’s principle of PHiladelphia’s new’ish Science Leadership Academy….